IPL 2021: As KKR goes cryptic from dugout, Virender Sehwag feels 'there's no role left for Eoin Morgan'

Kolkata Knight Riders, which is led by England captain Eoin Morgan currently sits at the fifth position on the eight-team points table, with just two wins from six encounters.

A screengrab of the incident

Kolkata Knight Riders are having a dreadful campaign in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. The franchise, which is led by England captain Eoin Morgan currently sit at the fifth position on the eight-team points table, with just two wins from six encounters. 

In their previous clash against Punjab Kings, which Knight Riders went on to win by five wickets, an incident from the contest is being heavily discussed on the internet. The moment involves KKR analyst Nathan Leamon, who was seen holding a placard with the number '54' written on it during the Punjab innings.

The on-air commentators and fans since have made their far-fetched conjectures about what the code meant, and now Virender Sehwag becomes the latest member to join the discussion.

The former India opener stated there's nothing wrong in it however, he feels that the gesture leaves the fielding-side captain with minimum role. 

“We have only seen such code language in the army. I think ’54’ was the name of their plan which could be about bowling a certain bowler at a particular time. I think that’s a little help that management and coaches want to give to the captain from the dugout.”

“There’s nothing to frown upon in this, but if they are dictating [the game] from the outside then in this way, anyone can be the captain right? There’s no role left for his (Eoin Morgan) popular instinctive power in the game, the power with which he won the World Cup,” said Sehwag in an interaction on Cricbuzz. 

“I think one should definitely get help from outside but the captain himself has some instincts about which type of bowler to use when. I am not saying don’t take the help from outside because sometimes even the 25th player can give a good suggestion.”

“But this suggestion should be only something which helps the captain and he thinks ‘Right, I didn’t think about it in this way’. Also, these things can help if he has forgotten something and the code reminds him of that then there’s no issue,” he added.

Sehwag then went on to add more subject behind his logic and shared the example of MS Dhoni’s instinctive captaincy. “Many captains like MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma are instinctive. They change their strategy according to the situation on the ground. If I talk about MS here, then when Andre Russell was batting, there was no fine-leg or deep square-leg, just 2 players on the leg-side, and the rest were on the off-side. No analyst can tell you this; this is MS Dhoni’s immediate thinking. No doubt, help from the dugout is good, but there are certain instances when the captain’s instincts are more important,” said Sehwag.